WARWICK — The possibility of a new pipeline to carry Marcellus shale gas through Chester County, and their backyards, has some Warwick residents concerned — and they plan to express those concerns at a township meeting on Dec. 4.

Mount Pleasant Road resident Amy Shenk told The Mercury she was approached by a land surveyor within the past two weeks asking permission to survey her property for a possible gas pipeline.

“I can’t really tell from the map the surveyor gave me, but it looks to me like the pipeline would go through the Hopewell Big Woods, Warwick County Park and French Creek State Park,” she said.

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Shenk said she contacted the township and Chester County Commissioner Terence Farrell and found that both had no knowledge of the potential pipeline or its exact route.

As a result, she asked to be put on the agenda for the Warwick Supervisors meeting at its Dec. 4 meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. and will be held in the township building on Route 23.

The reason no exact route is available is because it hasn’t been decided yet, said David Hooker, project manager for Commonwealth Pipeline LLC.

In fact, said Hooker, while several natural gas producers and users have signed agreements to use the pipeline, there are not yet enough financial backers to even ensure construction of the pipeline will go forward.

“We’ve just employed some land surveyors to do some preliminary work and make sure we route this properly,” Hooker said. “We’re moving very slowly on this. We want to see what kind of reception we get.”

The proposed interstate pipeline will consist initially of approximately 120 miles of 30-inch pipeline extending from Lycoming County to several points of interconnection in southeastern Pennsylvania with other interstate pipelines.

The Commonwealth Pipeline is also expected to connect with UGI Energy Service’s natural gas liquefaction, vaporization, and storage facility near Temple, Berks County, and to run near or connect with multiple natural gas distribution systems in southeastern Pennsylvania, according to a Sept. 20 article on the Daily Finance business wire.

The idea behind the pipeline is that so much gas is being generated by drilling in the Marcellus Shale regions of upstate New York and central Pennsylvania, that it is beyond the capacity of the current natural gas network to handle.

“In just five years, we’ve gone from 1 billion cubic per day” from Marcellus shale drilling “ to two to three billion cubic feet per day,” Hooker said.

By building a shorter pipeline to siphon off from that total, gas from Pennsylvania to Pennsylvania users, it saves some of the larger interstate pipelines from having to build larger and longer pipelines, Hooker explained.

“This way, we build a 120-mile pipeline and keep the infrastructure that’s already there, rather and a new 1,500-mile pipeline,” Hooker said.

But for it to work, there has to be enough production available, and enough local demand to make it financially viable, and the project is not there yet.

“This is all about local generation for local markets,” Hooker said.

Progress is being made.

In September, two “anchor shippers” — UGI Energy Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of UGI Corporation; and Capitol Energy Ventures Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of WGL Holdings, Inc. — both signed 10-year agreements to transport gas through the pipeline.

But there is still a long way to go, Hooker said.

The Commonwealth Pipeline project has not even begun the regulatory phase involving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and it would be 2016 “best case scenario” that pipeline construction would be underway, Hooker said.

“If we get to that point, I will personally be in every one of the municipalities affected,” Hooker said. “We want to make sure we route this properly.”

It’s too early to tell, he said, if that route goes through the the parks Shenk mentioned.

But one thing is sure, state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19th Dist., told a group of Chester County residents concerned about pipeline safety at a September, seminar at the Chester County Library in Exton — pipelines are coming, one way or another.

“There is no profit from the Marcellus Shale unless this gets to market,” Dinniman told the group, according to a Sept. 5 article in the Daily Local News.

“And the major place it will get to market is through Chester County and other suburban counties on its way to the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia. The gas lines are going to come, make no mistake about it. That’s the future,” Dinniman said.

An example of how that future becomes an issue of local concern can be found in the case of the Transcontinental Gas & Pipeline Company’s proposal to replace 2,200 feet of pipeline along the border of East Caln and East Brandywine, a pipeline that crosses Brandywine Creek in two locations.

Hooker confirmed that conceptually, the Commonwealth Pipeline he is proposing would be interconnected with the “TransCon” line in question.

In 2009, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection denied a permit for the replacement to cross the creek because of the method proposed. An alternative method was approved by DEP on Nov. 14.

“From a broader perspective, what is occurring along the Brandywine Creek here in Chester County is really the first battle in Philadelphia’s suburbs involving Pennsylvania’s growing Marcellus Shale industry,” Dinniman said in a Nov. 15 article about the approval in The Daily Local News.

“In order for the natural gas to have value, it has to travel east and get to market,” Dinniman said. “And that requires the installation of additional pipelines across our rivers and creeks, through our agricultural easements, and across our steep slopes, which are already sensitive to development and prone to water runoff and flooding.”